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Will brushed motors and ESC's dissappear?

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Only brushless motor I have is in my Mikwaukee 12v drill and wow, incredible power for the size

All my Tamiyas run brushed motors

I'm not a racer and don't want to plough money into switching over all my new and vintage RC's to brushless but do you think that soon enough the day will come when brushed motors, ESC's and nimh packs will all be consigned to the history books?

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Brushed motors will certainly become collectors items(or special niche items) in the near future. Sensorless brushless are cheap to produce and have no wear items. The power most expect out of their toys is also beyond most brush motors (think 40,50 and 60mph out of the box). esc's will available for a long time for those that want them and nimh batteries will become hard to find. Lithium tech is filtering thru to the main battery market in a massive way (power tools), once there is no demand for large scale production it will stop

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Yes, and no. I still have silver-can motors that are 25-30 years old and run just fine; they're hard to kill. And for those of us who like to run vintage cars (or re-releases thereof) which don't handle all that well and don't need a ton of power to be fun, the old RS540 is still perfect. A modern ESC and 2S lipo battery wakes them up nicely, without the drivetrain jolts and "they'e gone plaid!" speed of the brushless systems in modern cars.

But on the racing side, brushed motors are already relegated to collector's-item status. There is absolutely no point in cutting commutators, replacing brushes, fiddling with timing, soldering on capacitors and Schottky diodes, or any of those other mystical rites and rituals we used to have to go through for a simple evening of club racing. And frankly, I say good riddance.

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I've been saving up brushed vintage motors for a while now from Losi, Speedworks, Trinity, Kyosho, etc. But most of my runners have the good old silvercans, dont remember killing any of them either.

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Imo brushed will be here for a lot longer for general running. Those 540's will be here for another 15 year i reckon !!

In racing terms brushed days are lone gone...... And that is a big pity imo. :(

I used to love getting my racing brushed motors upto speed, cutting comms, trying a harder spring on the + side and a weaker spring on the - side and vise versa, until I got a peak RPM and torque figure I liked. Jesus, those were the days when racing was fun. Now its just bolt in the motor and change a setting or advance timing electronically. = sad times :(

James

:)

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^ James, I hear you bud. But my brushless equipment from castle, as an example, has a usb interface and software that opens up an entirely different world of tuning that easily fills the brushed motor tuning void.

At any rate, I've found that many modern brushless ESC's are also brushed compatible and can also be used with older battery technology. And with lipo alarms being as cheap as they are you can use lipo on older brushed esc's that don't have a low voltage cutoff. This way you can take your time switching your gear out a little at a time. That's what I've been doing anyways. My fleet is a mixed batch of brushed and brushless with lipo batteries and an alarm or external cutoff paired on the older ESC's.

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Indeed, brushed will be around for a long while yet as they are used in a range of applications. They will become more niche. Brushless is better in just about every way and they are also nearly as cheap.

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RC may go away from using brushed motors in kits, however; there are many industrial uses for brushed motors. Drills, hair dryers, pumps etc. So they are not going anywhere

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I think they'll phase out sooner than we anticipate - look how recently we had kits with MSCs - got to be much less than 10 years?

The start of this has already been pointed out in the form of dual-purpose ESCs which can handle both brushed and brushless motors.

The reality with tamiya of course will come down to economics and when it will become viable to introduce something suitable to replace the Johnson 540...

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I am quite confident that they will no longer be in general use sooner rather than later. But just as there are still fullsize car collectors who run Stanley steamers, I am equally confident that modellers will continue to run brushed systems in classic RCs for many decades to come.

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Hello all. New here, obviously. Brushed motors will be around for years to come as they are more durable and simpler. As far as hobby application however, I do think they will be relegated to collector status. I would equate brushed motors to the Chevy 350. Though there are more advanced motors, the 350 is as tough as nails (and I'm a Mopar guy) and simple, producing good results. Because it does its job well, they will be in use for many years yet to come.

Lipos require too much attention for them to package with consumer RC products. Nimh will likely be around for the imaginable future. Super simple to maintain and more stable than Li-Poly. There are other chemistries that aren't as volatile. I think LiFe has more consumer possibilites than Li-Poly.

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My feeling is that a silver can is so widely used that it costs pence to make. I am guessing even a basic brushless motor costs much much more. For that reason I think the silver can will last. To be honest when geared right and coupled to a Lipo they go well.

Out of interest are we seeing brushless power tools and vacuums yet? That might help the cost to come down.

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I agree re. LiPos - while they have obvious performance advantages for the serious hobbyist, the safety issues need to be addressed before they can be considered suitable for general consumer use.

However I disagree re. the motors. A brushless motor with only one moving part and no springs or brushes to wear out is more durable and simpler than a brushed one. As the OP pointed out, we are already seeing the transition in high-end power tools. Home appliances are also transitioning to brushless - our washer and vacuum cleaner both run brushless motors for example. RTR RCs are increasingly coming with brushless motors, so kit RCs surely won't be too far behind.

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^ yeah our vacuum, washing machine, my cordless drill and even the wifes hairdrier all use brushless motors. So they are def coming into the mainstream slowly but surely. But those silver can 540's must be made for pennies, and if so, I can't see Tamiya changing that any time soon (i.e. the next 10 years tbh) so expect most kits to still come with them, heck look how long the MSC's lasted. Lol.

James

:)

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^ yeah our vacuum, washing machine, my cordless drill and even the wifes hairdrier all use brushless motors. So they are def coming into the mainstream slowly but surely. But those silver can 540's must be made for pennies, and if so, I can't see Tamiya changing that any time soon (i.e. the next 10 years tbh) so expect most kits to still come with them, heck look how long the MSC's lasted. Lol.James :)

I don't think Mr T will change soon , How do i know this ? . " WELL " look at the Tamiya plug < so out dated :lol: ..

Yet they still use it & have not come up with some else that's better WHY ?.

The good old days , running the brush motors . Learning how to make it perform & last in racing .

This is how things were , we had to learn & loved doing so . These days it rtr & computers on BL systems .

Your not getting your hands dirty per say :lol: like we all did in them days .

I blew up a few motors , trying things & gettting them to go faster :lol: ...

Unwinding them & doing a rewind on a stock 540 , to a 5 turn motor :lol: , WELL it went fast & melted & caught fire ,

but i learnt ... Good old days , trying things & learning . NOT by Google search BAHAHAHA!!

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if brushless motors are coming into everyday items that will bring the cost down, then maybe we will see them soon.

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Indeed. One of the reasons, if not the main reason that silver cans are so cheap is that they are made in huge numbers for industrial applications, and benefit from economies of scale. It won't be long before brushless motors become similarly prevalent and thus affordable.

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If they can produce a decent waterproof/resistant brushless motor and a ESC for under 40$ it may have some future.

Currently for 'simple' cars as a LB and kids buggies nothing beats a quicrun 1060 + brushed motor in wet conditions (price wise)

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